Purifying Our Faith: Lessons from St. Thomas
Summary of Headings
The Importance of the Resurrection
Lessons from St. Thomas
This has been, as was said last week, the resurrection is the single moment that gives us the fullness of our faith, that brings our faith to life, that defines our faith for us. That's what the resurrection does for us. But now we are seeing in the apostles what that effect has. So of course poor Saint Thomas gets a bad rap. Everybody who is a doubter, somebody who does not want to believe something, is referred to now as a doubting Thomas, precisely because of this. Precisely because of this incident. Never mind that Saint Thomas is the apostle who went furthest spreading the Gospel all the way to India where he was martyred. That he is the father of that country. Never mind all the efforts that he put into and the blood that he sacrificed in proclaiming the Gospel. Never mind all the great things that he did. When everybody thinks of Saint Thomas, they think of this scene and this scene alone. The doubting Thomas. That even if I were to see, that unless I see and put my finger into the holes in his hands, my hand into his side, I will not believe. That is what we think of when we think of Saint Thomas. And it's unfortunate. But the fact of the matter is, it's an important lesson to us. There's a reason why the epistle and the Gospel are together. And that is because the thing that we must take out of this entire time of Eastertide, is the fact that we are not alone. There is a purity of faith. Many times we get overly complicated in our faith. How we believe. What we believe. Why we believe. And it is important for us to purify our faith. Why do we believe that our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead? Because He said so. Because He did. Because the church tells us so. Because the church, has defined it as so. That is why we believe. Not because of all the historical documents or anything else. Obviously the Gospels are historical documents. That's not what I'm saying. But, that, we don't base it on records from the Romans, or records from the Sanhedrin, or whatever else. It is based upon a very simple fact. God Himself told us so. In the Bible and in tradition. Saint Thomas, when he is trying to explain to us the different forms of argumentation. He explains that the argument of authority is actually the weakest of all arguments. When we try to say, such and such is true because so and so said so. Well then all of our argument depends upon the authority of a fallible person. Who, even though he could be right, 99 out of 100 times could still be wrong that one time. That is why it is a weak argument. The weakest of all arguments. Unless that person that we quote, and that person that we refer to, is the Church, is Christ. Then it is absolute. Why is that? Because Christ cannot be wrong. The Church cannot be wrong. It is an impossibility. God cannot lie. He cannot cheat. He cannot deceive us in any way. He cannot mislead us. Not only is it impossible because He is that honest, but because He is God. It is ontologically impossible by His very nature to sin, or to say a lie, or to mislead us. It is an impossibility. This is one of the most important reasons that we believe. Another distinction. We cannot deceive nor be deceived. As we say in the act of faith. He is God. And therefore He is truth. And therefore we must believe Him. That is it. He rose from the dead. And we know that what He said is, we know that He rose from the dead because Scripture tells us. Because tradition tells us. Because Christ Himself told us. Nothing else is needed. Nothing else is needed. So therefore, it is important that we purify our faith. Not trying to rationalize it. Because that is what the world does. They want reason. They want scientific evidence of every little thing. But the fact of the matter is, what it comes down to is subordination of our intellect to something we cannot comprehend. Or understand. That is the essence and definition of faith. We surrender our mind and our reason. Even if we can't understand it, define it, or defend it. That is not necessary for faith. What is necessary for faith is to know. Absolutely. Without a shadow of a doubt. That this is so because Christ Himself told us. Now there are two sources of doctrine. The two foundation stones underneath all doctrine. And that is Scripture and tradition. And this can only come from the church. The faith can only come through the church. It belongs to the church. It is the gift from God to us through the church. So we know something is true and infallibly true. When it comes through the church. Now this creates a bit of a problem. As we well know in the modern church. Though an angel from heaven teach a doctrine other than the one I have given you, let them be anathema. We cannot put any stock in anything that contradicts or defies or redefines what Christ has already taught. What the church has already taught. The resurrection is the foundation stone for all absolute belief period. Everything else. Everything else. Is salvation. Is suspect. Everything else is human. Not divine. If the church defines something and declares it to be so, it is so. Because it is with the authority of Christ that it does so. But if people in the church teach something outside of that, it is suspect. The reason that people would preach something other than what Christ has already taught could be boiled down to a number of things. But what it comes down to essentially is one very simple fact. Worldliness. It could be worldly ambition. It could be worldly influence. It could be any number of things. It could be trying to make peace with the world which is one of the things that Vatican II is trying to do. The relationship between the church and the world had to be redefined. According to John the 23rd. They had to open the windows of the church. Let in the fresh air of the world into the church. No. That's not how this works. We don't bring the world into the church. We take the church out into the world. That is what the definition of the faith is supposed to be. The faith is not supposed to be just harbored for ourselves. It is supposed to be shared. Which is why our Lord Jesus Christ, as we know him, is the one who is the most powerful. After bringing his peace to the apostles. Peace be to you. He breathes upon them and gives them the faith through the Holy Ghost. And then he says, as I was sent, I also send you. He sends them out into the world. To bring the faith to all. As all of us must do as well. But before we can do so. We must go back to the basics of our faith. And make sure that the foundation of our faith is sufficiently strong. And pure. To be able to confront the world with its cynicism. With its skepticism. And with its hatred for the truth of Christ. That we will be able to withstand it. Now how do we purify our faith? Well the first thing is we go back to the basic doctrines of the church. Archbishop Lefebvre often said that a child with his catechism can teach a bishop a thing or two. And it's true. Because often times we get so distracted with all the, shall we say, the extra part. Of the faith. All the things that are attached to the faith. But not absolutely of the faith. That we lose sight of the essence. And the concrete and most central aspects of the faith. The most central tenets of the faith. Many times we can give dissertations about the problems with the new mass. When we don't even know what the mass is. Many times we can explain all the errors of Vatican II without knowing what the truth is. Before we can explain the errors. Things like that. So go back and get to know the basics first and foremost. Go back to the catechism. Read the catechism of the Council of Trent. Read the very basics. That's the first thing. Second thing is we need to all pray better. Our prayer life is essential to live our faith. If we truly believe, we will live that faith. We will make it. We will make efforts for our faith to overcome our weakness. Our incredulity. Our human reaction to the faith. Our need for scientific evidence. Our need to prove something. Or to be right over somebody else. Etc. Those are all secondary considerations that have very little to do with the faith. First and foremost, it is an act of subordination of our mind to a truth. So first we know the faith. And second, we must also subordinate ourselves to the faith. And to the faith, not to everything else around it. The third thing is we need to start getting rid of distractions from the faith. Things that take away from the faith. Things that make us not doubt the faith necessarily, but humanize the faith too much. Just one example. One example is controversy. Oh, how we love controversy. It's so much easier to study than the boring old tomes of the faith in the Bible. Such as the boring catechism. It's so much easier for us to get to know the different problems going on in the church and the world. To fret and worry about all the things going on. All the politics. All the hatred and despair. All the fear and frustration. That's so much more attractive to us. Yes, we're rather macabre. We suffer from schadenfreude quite a lot. We decide that we are going to be focusing on everything else in the world. Oftentimes with the good intention of being aware of what's going on in the world so that we can live the faith in the world. Yes, but oftentimes that's a bit of a cheat. Because we put so much attention and focus on that, that we don't actually give time for real studies. How many of us study scripture each day? How many of us actually read the Bible? How many of us have made it the point to read commentaries on the Bible? Or read the works of the fathers of the church? How many of us have read the Catechism of the Council of Trent? Ah, but we can read every little news article that comes up on our phones any time of the day or night. Anything on social media, etc. We have to stay disciplined. And we have to start weeding out the unnecessary things to focus on the necessary. That's one way to purify our faith. As I mentioned before, the second is prayer. Our prayer must be based upon the faith. That is why the Rosary is so important. It gives us such clear meditations so that we'll be able to know what we are saying. So that we'll be able to live a part of the faith when we say the Rosary. Which is why every family should say the Rosary each and every day. I know it's a chore, but it's necessary. The more necessary, the worse the world gets. Which is also why the Mass is such an instruction for us. If we really pay attention, the Mass is teaching us each and every day about the mysteries of the faith. The Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, baptism, everything. If you want to know the essentials of the Rosary, you can read the Bible. The price of faith is being preached while the priest says Mass, and those who have years to hear will hear. If we want to purify our faith, this is how we go about it. We surrender ourselves to God, and then we learn everything that God wants to teach us. But we focus on the essentials. Even the good things can sometimes be distractions. There are some people who are far more familiar with the private revelations that the church holds as treasures than they are with the doctrine of the church. That's backwards. The doctrine of the church is the guidance for what we can glean from private revelation. We must learn from God. Not know by our own merit and our own strength. We need to give to God. And the faith is the first and most important way to do so. So we live in this world of cruelty, of hatred, of derision to religion that wants to deny Christ, that wants to deny His resurrection. And we have to live in this world a life of faith. So let's purify our faith. Let's focus on cleaning it up from the human and worldly influences that have crept in. Let's protect ourselves from falling into, shall we say, an over -focus on the extras, the things outside of the faith that just touch on the faith but are not of the faith. Let's work on getting rid of focusing on scandals and controversy as opposed to really studying and knowing the faith. And most importantly, let's really try to focus on our prayer life so that we can listen to what God is telling us through the faith. So that we can know how to live our faith, not just have faith, but make it the essential tenant of our lives that will actually be the informing matter that guides us through everything that we have to do. Every part and aspect of our lives must depend upon it, must flow from it. The faith is all necessary. Let us learn from the example of St. Thomas of what not to do. Let us learn from the example of the great missionaries and saints that went before us who lived their lives so fully in faith that they were willing to sacrifice their lives wholly and entirely and sometimes bloodily in the life of God. Let us turn to the St. Thomas who of course with his great confession, my Lord and my God, defined exactly what we should do every time we are confronted by the faith in our lives. To adore the wisdom of God, to adore the gift of faith that we have and to be able to live it and apply it to each and every aspect of our lives so that through our prayers and through our actions we may be able to be perfectly united to Christ in the faith and be able to see him in truth one day in heaven. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Purifying Our Faith
Summary
This homily reflects on the resurrection as the cornerstone of our faith, emphasizing its role in bringing our beliefs to life and defining them for us. It highlights how the apostles, particularly St. Thomas, were transformed by this event. St. Thomas, often remembered as the 'doubting Thomas', is presented as a figure who, despite his initial skepticism, ultimately made a profound confession of faith. His journey is used to illustrate the importance of a pure and simple belief in Christ's resurrection. The homily calls for a purification of faith, urging believers to return to the basics of doctrine, deepen their prayer life, and avoid distractions that dilute their beliefs. It stresses the need for faith to be the guiding force in confronting the world's challenges.